VMware NSX for vSphere Deployment Guide (Part 2)

The next part of the NSX deployment is to get the NSX Manager registered with vCenter. The first thing to do for this is to browse to the NSX Manager IP that you chose during the OVF deployment. You will be presented with a login screen as seen below.

Enter the username of admin and the password that you chose during the OVF deployment. The next screen you will see is the main menu of options.

The first thing you will need to do is click on “View Summary” from here you can confirm the status of the NSX Manager.

You need confirm that vPostgres, RabbitMQ, NSX Management Service, and SSH Service are all started. Then click on the home icon and go back to the Main Menu of the NSX Manager. You will then click on “Manage Appliance Settings”. This will take you to the general settings page. You will click on NSX Management Service in the settings menu. This will bring you to the vcenter registration page as you can see below.

You will then click on the edit button in the vCenter Server section. Which will bring up the vCenter settings screen seen below

Here you need to enter the hostname or IP of your vCenter server as well as the username and password of an administrator. If you are using the default self-signed certificates you will be prompted to trust the certificate of your vcenter server. Click yes to proceed. It will then go back to the previous screen, however now you will notice that the status of the vCenter Server has changed to “Connected”

The next step is to log into the vCenter Web Client. At the vCenter Home page you will see a new “Networking & Security” icon as shown below.

Click on this icon and you will be taken to the NSX Home page. From here you will click on installation. This will take you to the NSX Cluster deployment page seen below

From here you will click on the green plus icon under “NSX Controller nodes”. This will bring up the Add controller wizard.

On the dropdown next to NSX Manager you will click and select the NSX Manager that has been deployed (There will only be one to choose from). Next you will need to choose the vCenter Datacenter that contains the hosts where the NSX Controller nodes will be deployed to. Next you will need to choose you Management cluster in that datacenter. Next you will need to choose the datastore where the NSX Controller nodes will be stored on. Next you will need to select a host for each controller node. Best Practice is that there should be no more than one cluster node per host. The next step is to select the management network for the controller nodes. This should be the same management network used by the MSX Manager. Next you will need to create an IP Pool for the controller cluster nodes to use.

After filling in the IP Pool information click “Ok” This will take you back to the add controller node wizard and the last piece of information you will need to enter is the admin password that you want to use for them. After that click “Ok” to begin the deployment of your first controller node. You will no when the deployment is complete when the status of the controller node changes to “Normal”. Once it completes, you will need to repeat this process at least 2 more times, to deploy a minimum of 3 controllers. Remember, there should be no more than one controller node per host in the managements cluster and you should only deploy one controller node at a time to ensure that the cluster election process completes, successfully.